Having finished watching the races, I’ll agree that my initial assessment was too harsh……but my overall point remains re: how the UCI has significantly altered what an XC course is. And I’m also not saying that the courses aren’t technically challenging….i am talking about the reliance on manmade features to make them so.
Apples and Oranges, IMO. The UCI worlds is on a significantly shorter course and, certainly this year, is much less technically challenging. This will naturally lead to more aggressive racing. That said, I don’t find watching Unbound live to be particularly interesting viewing. But that is not the point, either.
An extremely rare occurrence at Unbound….it isn’t like that happens every year.
Sure…and I don’t think anyone has any problems with the idea of variety. But if you are gonna put on the Gravel World Championships and award a Rainbow Jersey for it, don’t you think the course should actually be predominantly gravel? Seems like that should lowest common denominator.
I don’t live in the US, and can’t really have an accurate picture. But a short search shows that 2015 and 2023 were the mud festival. 2 out of 9 isn’t extremely rare.
EDITED: I don’t want to start a discussion on this, don’t get me wrong. It’s just my personal view that I don’t like races like unbound. I much prefer the UCI gravel course, but that’s me.
I feel that in Europe, the Gravel in Gravel bikes is just a token name, I’ve done lots of Gravel events in the UK and only one was predominantly Gravel, Iceland was, Scotland was, but because of the compact nature of the continent, we don’t have a whole load of gravel roads
I think Europe view the “gravel” in gravel bike, the same way as Mountain bikes aren’t very often ridden on mountains (in the europe) and endurance bikes, don’t often get taken on 100’s of miles bike rides
So I’m ok with the Gravel Worlds not being mainly gravel, it just shouldn’t be another road race
I race a lot of gravel, watch an unhealthy amount of races and was very much looking forward to the UCI Gravel Worlds. However, I was very bored watching it this year. Not sure if it was the course or what as last year I really enjoyed it. I agree it was a yawn-er.
Unfortunately most of Europe doesn’t have US gravel and it’s more akin to our BWR courses. This year was a dud and hopefully next year’s course will be more entertaining.
I don’t know what the definition should be tbh, yours seems reasonable but then you get into defining gravel vs packed dirt vs cobbles…any distinction is going to end up arbitrary at some point
It’s a squishy word, gravel.
Insufficiently maintained pavement can be pretty brutal and would fit in to me, as would other things. I guess I just think it’s a fool’s errand to try to put a strict definition on courses
Haters are gonna hate
That UCI gravel worlds was a good race to watch. I was excited to see the attacks and good team tactics. Course was cool. They improved since the Italy course, which was lame.
It’s different than US / lifetime series, but that’s actually not that cool to watch the races, tho I enjoyed their docu-series on the athletes with little clips of the racing highlights.
I enjoyed watching the race as well. Seeing the Belgians try to outwit MVDP was interesting and you just kind of knew they weren’t going to be able to beat him, even with all those guys. If you put good racers on any course, the racing can be good. It is better than watching a group just ride hard until people slowly get dropped.
Yes, it wasn’t what we would consider a “gravel” race strictly, more akin to a BWR race as some have mentioned. It was an Unroad race, which is fine. When you want to do a circuit closer to civilization, it is necessary to have more connector sections on pavement. I would much rather race that Worlds course than Unbound any day. But hey, if you all like walking through mud, trashing a bike, and then being told to stop whining about it afterwards by the organizers, then go and enjoy it.
I have already said the races were enjoyable to watch…but they weren’t gravel races, IMO. They were road races with some dirt sections tossed in.
I’m not hating anything…honest criticism is good for everyone.
It doesn’t have to be either / or. There is a lot of ground between what was essentially a road race this weekend and a slog like Unbound.
To further clarify, if they want to continue to have this race ongoing and call it a gravel race, great…I just don’t think it was worthy of awarding a rainbow jersey over.
You could do UCI Gravel world championships in Spain (still in Europe last time I checked) and run it in the same are as the Badlands race. Punishing Gravel course and location close enough for the Euros to show up, but maybe not with 32mm cross tires.
Yesterday, I rode in the age group (35-39), on 40mm Tufo Thundero tires. In my opinion, it was a really nice course for a 180km gravel race. On TV, the gravel looked much smoother, but that’s not how it felt for me; my back and wrists were pretty wrecked towards the end. The asphalt roads were often used as connections between the off-road sections or to include a climb in the course. I enjoyed it.
The course next year looks better, but I would like to see some clarification between what is classified as “asphalt”, “road” and “dirt road”…with the primary question being what is considered a “road” if it isn’t asphalt or a dirt road.
If “road” means some sort of paved road vs. a gravel road, than 40km until they get to any sort of sustained dirt seems excessive. But one big loop and some extended climbing is a nice change from previous courses.
The circuit was fine, it actually looked like you needed to know how to ride (corner) a bike instead of the typical courses I see on the Lifetime GP.
It would be great if it had more unpaved roads but if you are going to have a final circuit around the host city (not sure if it’s the UCI or Host City interests at play here) it’s kind of hard to avoid paved sections to connect the unpaved ones, the way Leuven did it it, I think it was pretty cool.
Pros who raced and were quite involved in developing the “spirit of gravel” in US (whatever that may be) have voiced their opinion about UCI killing the spirit of gravel:
